Popularity of Christianity overstated

dan719

It is commonly stated that Christianity comprises over one billion members. However I wonder how many of these are like myself baptised atheists. I assume this is the place to find some sort of response. I am also interested in a way of officially leaving the church- excommunicating myself as such.

Scofflaw

dan719 wrote:

It is commonly stated that Christianity comprises over one billion members. However I wonder how many of these are like myself baptised atheists. I assume this is the place to find some sort of response. I am also interested in a way of officially leaving the church- excommunicating myself as such.

Would the Atheism forum not be more suitable?

cordially,
Scofflaw

dan719

I'm not trying to cause an argument, this is a genuine question I would like an answer to, I respect the knowledge of many of the posters on this forum, even if I disagree with their views. I genuinely wish to officially leave the Church(for all intents and purposes I have left) as I disagree strongly with it's world view, morality and that it condemns me for what I am, which is ultimately a bundle of cells developed over millions of years of evolution.

Scofflaw

dan719 wrote:

I'm not trying to cause an argument, this is a genuine question I would like an answer to, I respect the knowledge of many of the posters on this forum, even if I disagree with their views. I genuinely wish to officially leave the Church(for all intents and purposes I have left) as I disagree strongly with it's world view, morality and that it condemns me for what I am, which is ultimately a bundle of cells developed over millions of years of evolution.

Ah. It's just that there's a couple of old threads on 'leaving the church' in the A&A forum.

cordially,
Scofflaw

dan719

My sincerest apologies, I shall do a search,to any mod please feel free to delete as required.

PDN

dan719 wrote:

It is commonly stated that Christianity comprises over one billion members. However I wonder how many of these are like myself baptised atheists.

Different denominations count people in different ways. Many evangelical churches only count adult baptised members. I know of a single church in Indonesia that has 60,000 members - but actually has over 100,000 regular attenders (the remainder are under 16 years old or are adults who worship at the church but have never got around to taking out membership).

I suspect it may be a case of swings and roundabouts, with undeclared worshippers in one form of Christianity cancelling out the baptised atheists in others. But who really knows?

Scofflaw

PDN wrote:

Different denominations count people in different ways. Many evangelical churches only count adult baptised members. I know of a single church in Indonesia that has 60,000 members - but actually has over 100,000 regular attenders (the remainder are under 16 years old or are adults who worship at the church but have never got around to taking out membership).

I suspect it may be a case of swings and roundabouts, with undeclared worshippers in one form of Christianity cancelling out the baptised atheists in others. But who really knows?

You could have a decent stab at it in Ireland, I suspect. There are certainly more than 929 atheists in the country, and it's equally certain that a lot of the younger ones are put down as "Catholic" on the census.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Asiaprod

dan719 wrote:

My sincerest apologies, I shall do a search,to any mod please feel free to delete as required.

No problem with the question. I remember in some thread Scofflaw listed all the ways to get excommunicated. Something about striking a Bishop pops to mind;) . I don't think I have seen a Christian response to this question before.

Scofflaw

Asiaprod wrote:

No problem with the question. I remember in some thread Scofflaw listed all the ways to get excommunicated. Something about striking a Bishop pops to mind;) .

Yes, but the one I had in mind died.

Asiaprod wrote:

I don't think I have seen a Christian response to this question before.

True - and potentially interesting.

EDIT: hang on, there is one, quite recent, with our friends PDN and Jakkass on it.
FURTHER EDIT: Er, you're on it too.

Hmm. You may find this clarification from the Vatican useful (assuming we mean the Catholic Church here). Essentially, you need to deliver your decision to apostasise in written form to a relevant parish priest - probably the one you were baptised in. If there is a problem, you might want to include the clarification from the Vatican. Note that you can't get your baptism unregistered, because that's the record of an official act.

cordially,
Scofflaw

PDN

Scofflaw wrote:

You could have a decent stab at it in Ireland, I suspect. There are certainly more than 929 atheists in the country, and it's equally certain that a lot of the younger ones are put down as "Catholic" on the census.

cordially,
Scofflaw

So the census figures are no help to us then. Some of the teenagers at our church were annoyed that their non-religious parents had marked them down as "no religion" on the census form.

The Mad Hatter

PDN wrote:

So the census figures are no help to us then. Some of the teenagers at our church were annoyed that their non-religious parents had marked them down as "no religion" on the census form.

Well, if J C is to be believed, Christianity isn't a religion anyhow.

Scofflaw

PDN wrote:

So the census figures are no help to us then. Some of the teenagers at our church were annoyed that their non-religious parents had marked them down as "no religion" on the census form.

Where are you again? Dun Laoghaire? However, I see that they didn't mark them down as Atheist, and "no religion" to me includes many who can properly be described as "Christian, ex-catholic, but unable to bring myself to become a Protestant".

cordially,
Scofflaw

Galvasean

Scofflaw wrote:

You could have a decent stab at it in Ireland, I suspect. There are certainly more than 929 atheists in the country, and it's equally certain that a lot of the younger ones are put down as "Catholic" on the census.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Yeah I admit it, I'm one of those "Mammy filled in the census and made me a Catholic when I wasn't looking" people.